Walmart Working Conditions

I would like to know about why isn’t more being done about the way Walmart manipulates its employees and the system. In order to make a change, people need to take a stand, and not just the employees. Unfortunately, the protests the employees partake in are not enough, they have been protesting for years and we have seen no change. I think a major reason we haven’t seen change is because people feel as if it’s not our responsibility. We aren’t employees of Walmart, we aren’t being forced to work when were not on the clock, we’re not the ones being worked through our breaks, were not being abused if we don’t meet our jeans quota for the day, so why would we care? In reality, it is our problem. We people have a voice, and were not using it to

When Walton learned in the 1970s that some of his workers were talking about unionization, he did not try to address their concerns. Instead, Ortega notes, he brought in a union-busting consultant named John E. Tate, who devised the policy of uncompromising resistance that would characterize Wal-Mart’s labor relations posture for decades to follow. That applied not only at the company’s stores, but also at its large network of distribution centers. For more than two decades, the giant retailer has been at the center of controversies over its low wages, overtime pay abuses, meager employee benefits, gender discrimination, negative impact on small business, immense dealings with China, tax avoidance and much more. Walmart's division of labor was not only boring, but the employees was not getting treated fairly. The employees was quitting, and filing law suits against Walmart.

Walmart has the right to describe about the current benefits and job security they offer to their employees. They can also explain employees about how they are better than other unionised stores. They can also explain about the negative effects of unionising the store like strikes and job hour losses. They can inform them about the union fee employees has to pay if they join the unions. They can inform about the negative motives of people who run these unions. They can also explain them that the employees are treated as “associates” rather than just “employees” so it is duty of them to protect the best interests of the company.

In the reading “Up Against Wal-Mart” by Karen Olson, she explains the tactics used by Wal-Mart in order to avoid paying their employees the fair wages they deserve. By training their employees to be anti-union, they can keep their pay lower while getting more labor out of them. In doing this employees are less likely to ask or receive promotions because they do not expect it to happen. Many of those who have worked at a Wal-Mart speak out on the mistreatment because they want a fair wage for the work they are putting in. The main focus for the way Wal-Mart runs their business is to teach their employees about working in a place union free. Those who disagree do not gain much change because they are quickly put down.

We all want to do what is best for our families, our friends, ourselves and our country. However, our nation’s number one corporation is under constant ridicule for being a negative part of the American way. Wal-Mart is the overall number one on the fortune 500, over taking Exxon Mobile after a one year slip to the number 2 spot. However Wal-Mart is constantly being ridiculed by media and everyday citizens, its employees included. These opinions are often brought forth because of four major issues; the pay and benefits packages of Wal-Mart employees, the quality and buying of their goods from China, big box corporation killing local businesses ,and Wal-Mart taking jobs away and not creating

It is stated that Wal-Mart is just making money off of poverty. Saying that Wal-Mart reaches out to the poor, and then pays their employees low wages so that they have to shop their also. Putting their money right back into Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart employees make about $8 an hour and they have to make less than that if they want insurance or any benefits. They state that Wal-Mart violates laws protecting workers ' organizing rights and has fired people for trying to get a union in the company. They say that there are many cases of Wal-Mart getting sued for not paying enough and for not following women’s rights.

Every successful business have a bad side to it, such is Walmart, one of the top topic these days for cheating hours off their workers, low wages, and using public’s money (subsidies) for their business. There have been many reports against walmart, but we have rarely seen anything about it on the news or on any other popular site, and there have been too little thing done about it. Walmart have to be more in-check with the Union or the government, because walmart have done many things that hurt their employees and the community just for some profit, and get away with it. Some people might not see walmart as a threat of any kind, but walmart is a big trouble for our community, to small businesses, and our country’s economy.

In addition to these effects on small businesses around the country, Wal-Mart’s promises of low prices are also impacting its own workforce. These low prices often come at the expense of fair wages and sufficient healthcare plans, leaving Wal-Mart employees to work in poor conditions for little reward. Wal-Mart’s treatment of its employees has long been in question. “The sad truth is that people earning Wal-Mart level wages tend to favor fashions available at the Salvation Army” (Ehrenreich, 2007). In less sarcastic terms, Wal-Mart employees cannot even afford to buy the clothes they sell and have to end up shopping at places like Goodwill and the Salvation Army to clothe themselves and their family. “You have to keep wages completely down;

“In the past few years Walmart has begun to face new challenges in addition to antisprawl activists and merchants, from labor unions, competitors, and other activists”(carroll607). The lawsuits for labor for Walmart’s labor practices have also increased over the years with the accusations of paying unfair wages, making employees work off the clock so they wouldn’t have to pay overtime, and discrimination against women. Due to Walmart’s financial impact on the U.S. it also has a huge economic impact on a state and federal level.

Unlike many of the traditional supermarket chains, Wal-Mart is not unionized, and efforts to organize its workers have failed. The flash point now is with supermarkets, as Wal-Mart rolls out more Supercenters having a full-line supermarket under one roof with a general merchandise store. Wal-Mart sells food at its warehouse format Sam's Clubs, its Neighborhood Markets traditional supermarkets and at regular Wal-Mart stores. Supermarket margins are razor-thin, and labor is a major cost variable. Rivals paying union wages of $10 an hour or more and paying most or all health benefits costs face intense cost pressure from Wal-Mart Supercenters, where workers might make $8 and pay a higher percentage of health costs (Stores, 2016).

Walmart was frequently accused of not providing employees with affordable access to health care, but the top managers and HR managers know their focus was just to try their most to implement the “low-cost” strategy. Finally, from the labor relations perspective, Walmart couldn’t have done better to show us how the contingency model of “best fitness” works. Walmart has strong anti-union policy. Allegations of firing workers sympathetic to labor organizations have been made, all new employees are shown a propaganda video tape which said joining a union would have bad implication for them, and the employees should never sign a union card. In the UK, it was reported in the Guardian that Walmart is facing the prospect of a bruising legal battle

Working long hours, carrying heavy boxes, low pay, and dealing with irate customers all day sums up the life of a retail employee. As someone that has worked several retail jobs over the last decade, they have all shared this common set of duties. Even speaking with individuals that have worked for different retail companies then I have worked for; they can describe their retail working conditions the same way as I have described them. However, Wal-Mart is the only store that is regularly accused of bullying their employees, and treating them poorly. They are also one of the few stores that promote themselves as a family store across the nation. Wal-Mart has developed a marketing initiative that shows how amazing and wonderful it is to work

According to a report by Clare O'Connor of Forbes Magazine published in 2014 “ Walmart's low-wage workers cost US taxpayers an estimated $6.2 billion in public assistance including food stamps, Medicaid and subsidized housing. Americans for Tax Fairness also reported “It found that a single Walmart Supercenter cost taxpayers between $904,542 and & 1.75 million per year due to low income which often force workers to rely on various public assistance programs.” Unfortunately the treatment of employees are not the greatest as large number of Walmart employees are now on government aide. Pay is at minimum wage which is way too low that leaves an employee unable to afford insurances. Allegations against the business giant about spying to ensure that a union will not occur and trying to manipulate employees to believing that unions are worthless are all correct and confirmed.

As the largest retailer in United State’s history, Wal-Mart attracts both praise and criticism. According to the company website, Wal-Mart sells more than $400 billion worth of goods a year and employees more than 2.2 million people. Wal-Mart is famous for its low prices, which have attracted criticism for being predatory and therefore pushing out competing businesses. Because Wal-Mart is extremely large, it has become a price setter for both sellers and competition. Furthermore, to maintain Wal-Mart’s prices, workers are paid low wages and, as some would argue, are exploited.

Walmart is the largest private employer in the world. With 11,000 stores worldwide that supplies 1.4 million jobs in the United States alone. With this amount of people involved in the company nationwide it is common to believe that the retailer is out for the greater good, that their main reason for being in business is to please the consumer. Part of the statement is true because if they do not please the consumer, they do not make any money. This is what this company and any other company out there, is attempting to pursue; to make as much money as they can with the lowest opportunity cost they can legally allow to give up.